


You Got It

by anxiousscififan



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, Season 6 Spoilers, The Voltron Games
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-25
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-28 03:30:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15039743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anxiousscififan/pseuds/anxiousscififan
Summary: Lance grimaced. "I died, Keith."//I wish people would stop saying that,// Keith thought to himself.





	You Got It

Keith had never really stopped to think about how _enormous_ space truly was. It had taken two whole years to travel through the Quantum Abyss, but he had written that off as distorted, collapsed time. While it was true that time in that region of space was warped, the sheer distance that he and his mother had traveled probably accounted for at least a few weeks of their journey. Space was _massive._ The Blue Lion had traveled from Earth to the edge of the solar system in less than a minute, a feat Keith knew required moving well over the speed of light, but the distance from Earth to Kerberos was infinitesimally small compared to the distances between galaxies. Since the Castle of Lions was gone, even at top speeds, the team would be traveling quite a while to make it back to Earth.

It wasn’t a straight shot home, either. For one thing, they had to go pick up Matt, and for another, the war didn’t stop around them so they could all go on a road trip. There were conflicts and hiccups along the way, and on top of everything, sleep _was_ in fact a thing everyone on the team still needed. It was for that reason—sleep—that the five Lions of Voltron landed on the grassy planet, specifically choosing a landing site that would give them a bit of daylight before night fell.

Keith stepped out of the Black Lion, weary from days of flying. He hoped Shiro would eventually take to the helm again, both for the sake of Shiro’s close bond with the Lion and to possibly allow the two to take turns flying, but for the time being, Shiro needed rest. He had tried to get up and around again at one point, but Krolia’s vicious maternal instincts kicked in and kept him in his makeshift pod-bed at knifepoint. Keith chuckled at the memory and began to walk around the grassy plain, stretching his legs.

He looked around the circled Lions and observed the eclectic Voltron family. Krolia and Coran were engaged in conversation, probably both relishing a real adult to talk to. Romelle and Allura seemed to be bonding; they were talking and laughing, both with a mouse perched on either shoulder. Pidge, who was followed like a mother duck by those fluffy trash creatures, Matt, and Hunk were cheerfully working on making some dinner. Kaltenecker was grazing contentedly, although she would probably be happier without a cosmic wolf chasing her teasingly. With Shiro still on bedrest, that made only one team member missing: Lance.

It didn’t take Keith long to spot Lance’s brown head poking out from the long grass a little way out of the Lion circle. He approached the lanky Blue Paladin quietly, his steps indiscernible from the natural swishing and swaying of the grass in the light breeze.

“Is everything all right, Lance?” Keith asked as he sat down beside the other young man.

Lance jumped a bit, startled. “Oh, hey Keith. Uh, yeah, I guess everything is fine. I just have a lot of personal stuff on my mind.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Lance looked at Keith skeptically. “ _You_ want me to talk about _feelings?_ I’m getting _really_ suspicious that you really _are_ Keith’s long-lost brother.”

Keith felt his eyebrows raise in amusement. “I spent two years on the back of a space whale creature, and most of that time I spent talking to my mom. I bottled things up for most of my life, but I’ve learned that it’s a lot nicer to let things out and work through them.”

“No wonder you’re taller than me now,” Lance grumbled. He was then thoughtful for a moment before speaking again. “I just have a lot to process, I guess. Some things happened while you were gone, and with everything that happened with Lotor and the Shiro Clone and the Castle, it’s just been festering because it wasn’t important in comparison.”

“Well, I’m listening now.”

Lance looked at Keith with a soft, grateful expression, the same one that had been burned into Keith’s mind years ago when Lance left Keith’s room reassured that he didn’t need to step down as a Paladin. Keith had long ago accepted that Lance didn’t return the feelings Keith had for him, but here in the tall grass with the sun setting and that face, Keith’s poor gay heart ached for that tan, lanky boy once more.

“After we got back from Oriande, Sendak started attacking a Galra labor colony,” Lance began. “We went to help, but when we got there, Sendak just damaged an orbiting shield facility and left. The shield protected the planet from these massive radiation bands, and there wasn’t much time before the colony would be exposed to the next band. There were these giant plates that needed to be put back in their spots, and one plate was shattered. Hunk put most of the plates back where they needed to go, Allura and I fused the broken plate back together, and Pidge and—well— _Not_ Shiro worked on restoring the plates’ power. Something went wrong on that end, though, and the broken plate shorted out.” Lance paused for a second and took a deep breath. “It was going to blow, and Allura was right above the center of it. She could have died. I—I rammed her out of the way, but I got hit instead. It hurt _so badly_. I’ve had my fair share of shocks in my life between the training robots, Pidge, and the invisible maze, but nothing like that electric blast. I could only scream for the first few seconds before my whole body seized, but I know it went on longer than that. They aren’t kidding about that whole ‘life flashing before your eyes’ thing, you know. I saw my home, my family, the Garrison, the team—all of it, and then everything was white. I didn’t just get hurt,” Lance grimaced. “I died, Keith.”

_I wish people would stop saying that_ , Keith thought to himself, unable to process himself what he had just heard.

“I—wow. I didn’t know any of that happened. But—you’re okay now, right?” Keith stammered his very unhelpful response. Some social skills can’t be learned on a space whale with your mom and dog.

“Yeah, I’m fine now,” Lance sighed. “Allura brought me back with Altean magic or whatever. So, yeah, _physically_ , there isn’t anything wrong with me—” Keith was inclined to completely agree on that point “—so I guess that’s why I feel bad that the whole thing is bothering me. It’s all just in my head.”

“Look, Lance.” Keith placed his hand on Lance’s shoulder. The younger boy let out a little gasp and looked Keith in the eye as he began to speak. “I’ve never died, but I’ve had a good number of close calls, and I think things would have been easier for me if I hadn’t tried to push through without taking time to process it all. You died; that’s a big deal. You have every right to have a lot of thoughts and feelings to work through right now. I haven’t seen your fighting suffer at all while all this has been on your mind, and as much as I wish you would be more careful with yourself—” the thought of losing Lance for good wasn’t even something Keith could entertain in his mind “—you did a good thing by saving Allura. You really are a great Paladin.”

Again, that gentle, remarkably pretty face. Lance smiled a bit at the ground. “Thanks, Keith.”

“You got it.” Keith took a deep breath through the nose and realized that something smelled amazing. He looked over his shoulder and saw that Hunk was dishing out some sort of food to the other eager team members. “I think it’s time for dinner. Ready to go back?”

Lance nodded, and Keith stood, holding out a hand to help the other boy up. Lance accepted, and Keith slung an arm around Lance’s shoulders reassuringly as they walked back to the Lions.


End file.
